RAGE AGAINST THE MOONS, VOL. 1: FROM THE EMPIRE
CHAPTERS:
Flight Night
Witch Hunt
From The Empire
Sword Dancer
CORRESPONDING ANIME EPISODES:
01 - Flight Night
02 - Witch Hunt
06 - Sword Dancer
11 - From The Empire
So, my latest endeavor is to read the Trinity Blood novels. The anime became one of my favorites, so I was eager to check out the books; the light novels are the original source material the anime and manga were adapted from.
I quite enjoyed the first volume. In many ways, having seen the anime, I already knew what was going on, but the book threw in a few surprises and extra bits here and there that were either removed or changed for the TV version. The detail in world building and politics is more throroughly explored, and the violence and gore is ramped up considerably.
My only real complaint was a slight amount of laziness displayed in how the manuscript was edited. Small words were missing here and there, an "a", "the", "he", "his", things of that nature, and in a few places an extra little word appeared that was not necessary. It seemed to increas in frequency toward the end of the book; I'm hoping this doesn't continue in the next volumes. It doesn't detract from the enjoyment, and it does not happen with such frequency that it becomes rediculopus, but for someone who majored in English and is a bit of a grammer nazi, it is a little disconcerting to see in a professionally published, mass-market book.
I always laughed at th antics of our hero, the oddball priest Father Abel Nightroad. He has a fair amount of what I call the Vash Complex in his character, in that he bumbles around, pretending to be clumsy and not too bright, but this is just a bluff to keep people off guard. The descriptions of him engaging his Crusnik form were very vivid, and included actions that were not animated in the series.
As I read, I remained mindful of the anime episodes and kept note of what was different between them and the novel chapters, and there were quite a few differences, ranging from major to minor. If you intend on reading the books and don't want any spoilers at all, just ignore this next bit. However, I will try to avoid major plot points and stick with the bare facts of the differences.
- The chapter order was altered in the anime episodes.
- In "Witch Hunt", the character of Eris Wasmayer is an older teenager, while she is a young girl in the anime. She also sees Abel in Crusnik form in the book, though not in the anime.
- One of the main villains, Isaak Fernand von Kampfer, is introduced in "From The Empire". In the anime, he is introduced in Episode 8 - "Silent Noise".
- The portrayals of Endre Kourza, the vampire antagonist of "From The Empire", vary between the book and anime. While he is an urbane man in the anime, in the book his appearance is childlike. The gruesome details of his killing spree are left out of the anime, as is his connection to the larger background conspiracy.
- There are also several differnces between the book and anime versions of "Sword Dancer": 1) In the anime, the vampires use a memory probe on Sister Agnes, while they do not in the book; 2) When Father Hugue is forced to fight for his life in the arena, he faces a lycanthrope (werewolf) in the anime, while in the book it is a man in an armored battle suit; 3) Father Hugue's slaughter of the vampires is not shown in the anime, while it is described in detail in the book.
My only regret is the length of time between book releases, and the fact that Tokyopop is alternating between the Rage Against The Moons series and the Reborn On The Mars series, so I will end up reading things out of order.
Other than that, if you have seen Trinity Blood and you enjoyed it, or you are a big fan of the anime, you would be doing yourself a favor by picking up these books. The extra detail goes a long way to helping fill in the cracks the anime wasn't able to do.
